Master Bathroom: Board and Batten

So far in the master bathroom, we've bought $5 paint, repaired and installed drywall, and painted the top half of the walls.  What's next, you ask?  This:

Clockwise from top left, images pinned here, here, here, and here

Sense a theme?  You're so smart.  Or you read the post title... but I like to think all my readers are smart.  :-)  I've been itching to throw up some board and batten in our house, and the master bathroom seemed like the perfect place to do it.  First I plotted where I wanted the ledge and batten to go.  We planned to just use the existing wall for the "board."  The ledge ended up being about 65" from the floor, and I spaced the battens every 12" or so.  I say "or so" because I adjusted the spacing slightly to make it even everywhere, like underneath the window and under the light fixture.

I painted the top half of the wall a dark green/gray/blue, using painter's tape to keep the lines straight across. I figured it would be easier to paint neatly on this step, then save the messy stuff for the white paint on the bottom (especially since this stuff was paint/primer and my white paint was just lonely paint).

The ledge and batten installation was pretty simple.  It required careful measuring and a good level.  Mr. GI used the nailer on his air compressor.

There were a few tricky spots, like this corner next to the shower:

And these teensy weensy bits next to the bathroom nook:

It started to get real, though, when Mr. GI installed the battens.  I didn't get a picture of the process, but he used Liquid Nails, a construction adhesive that's about $2.50 at Lowe's.

After that set, he used the air nailer again to provide a little extra stability.  Before I painted, he caulked the heck out of it.  I didn't get a good picture of it, but he actually modified the baseboard to fit the battens.  The baseboard we bought for both bathrooms was thinner on top than the battens were, and it would have looked strange (although Sand & Sisal angled the bottom of their battens to accommodate that, which I pinned here).  So Mr. GI ran the baseboard through his table saw to strip off the smallest top section of the baseboard, which made it flatter and a bit more modern.

You can actually see a peek of the new floors in the picture above, but I didn't think about taking a picture of just the floors.  I was too taken with how well the B&B turned out.  Can you blame me?  I've been drooling over it....

Next up, the rest of the paint!!  Someday we'll actually move into this bathroom again....  Life has seriously gotten in the way of this project.  I had a big final project for my summer class and it held up the painting progress.  One of these days I'll figure out how to work more hours into the day.

Do you have board and batten in your house?  Do you sing it to sleep like I do mine?  Just kidding... kind of.

Read about this bathroom's humble beginnings, more drywall, the first bit of paint, and follow my Pinterest board for the bathroom.